Small Wonder: The High Score
by BadMrSushi
Summary: Jamie unwittingly uses Vicki's superior computational abilities while showing her how to play a popular arcade game, an arcade game with a rather coveted high score, that is held by a rather powerful high score champion. This would take place in between seasons 2 and 3.


**Small Wonder**

 **The High Score**

 _By BadMrSushi_

It was an unseasonable cool September afternoon. The kind of weather that would make children and adults alike think of playing hooky from their respective daily tasks and chores, the sky outside was simply too blue to be true. Worse than that, it was only just now getting on towards the lunch hour which meant that there was still at least a full 5 hours in the day ahead of them. A precious 5 hours that could be put to better use, surely.

Ted Lawson sighed out and imagined himself standing out on the golf course. A bag of clubs by his side, an Arnold Palmer in his hand, and the gentle sound of men swearing and breaking nine irons in frustration at the game. His thoughts fluttered all about the course, from the first nine holes all the way to the fareways and greens of hole 18- hole 18 was Ted's favorite of course, with it's nasty little water hazard. Somewhere in that watery grave he had a course record of 26 golf balls. In many ways the fury he felt at himself when the ball would hit the water was very cathartic. Ted smiled at the thought of the shimmering trap, and made a splashing noise aloud.

"…So you disagree Lawson?" asked the main hydraulic engineer of United Robotronics. Ted snapped his attention back to the short disgruntled little man standing across the table from him. A knowledge rushed over him, more of a sick feeling really, that he had completely missed something very important that the little man had said. How long had he been thinking of golf? One minute? Ten?

"I think what Ted is trying say, Mr. Chesny, is that we're already having issues with the SJ28's coolant systems." Said another man from the far end of the table. "They just weren't meant for this kind of abuse! You plug that much data into just one of them and they burst a thermal pump!" The man made a gesture with his hands to show just how forceful the bursting could potentially be.

The disgruntled petite Mr. Chesny crossed his arms and turned his gaze towards the rather large meeting room window. He sighed out. "The SJ28 is the only stack we have available to us for at least a month. That idiotic think tank down in Games and Magic are hogging the faster SJ32's." He said with a slight hiss in his voice. There was hushed murmuring around the meeting room.

Ted cleared his throat, made eye contact with Chesny, and spoke up. "What about linking some of the SJ28's up with some older towers to help carry the burden? Can't we just have the SJ28 stacks process the incoming data then, and have some older computers worry about correlating the numbers afterwards?" Chesny looked back at Ted with blank eyes, obviously stunned by the brilliant suggestion. The other engineer from the far end of the table shifted uncomfortably in his chair. Everyone was eerily silent, expecting a response from Chesny, a response that simply never came.

The mercy of the lunchtime tone rang throughout the huge building, and everyone in the meeting room once again began murmuring, shuffling their important looking papers and getting up from their seats to leave for the next glorious hour. Ted gathered his papers too, had his stunning idea struck Chesny so hard that it had rendered him speechless? He glanced over his shoulder as he was leaving the room just in time to see the small disgruntled looking engineer practice a golf swing while looking out the window.

Halfway across town, at the newly remodeled mall, Jamie Lawson was also absent minded with the afternoon's siren song. He too had a sudden knowledge that something very important had just been said to him. He shook his head back into reality, and looked at the girl standing in front of him. "What?" He asked finally.

"I have four dollars in quarters." Repeated Vicki. She put her hand into her pinafore pocket and produced 16 very shiny quarter dollars. Jamie took some of the coins with big eyes. Vicki continued. "I also have seven dimes and one nickel."

"Why are these all so shiny? Are they all new?" Asked Jamie, inspecting the coins closely. The years on the quarters ranged in decades, so they couldn't have been newly minted.

"They are not new quarters." Answered Vicki. "But I will put them through the laundry tonight, I saw on T.V. that laundered money can yield a return profit of 30% in the continental United States, or 40% in it's island territories."

Jamie laughed and rattled the coins in his hand. "I don't think it works like that, Vicki!" He told her. He looked around the mall's beautified entrance until he found the sign he was looking for, Tilt Arcade. He motioned to the Arcade door and nudged Vicki. "Come on, I'll show you how to spend these the smart way." He said cheerfully.

"Your mother said to wait for her here by the fountain." Responded Vicki.

"We'll only be a minute, besides the Arcade's right by the entrance!" Said Jamie, now leading Vicki by the hand across the walkway. "This'll be good! You've never played Pac-Man yet, me and Reggie play the one close to our school all the time! We've almost even beaten the high score!"

"The high score." Repeated Vicki. "Is Pac-Man played while standing on a ladder?" She asked, earnestly curious of the ramifications of falling down.

"No, Vicki." He answered. Jamie held up a quarter for her to see. "It's the best score out of everyone else's, who played. It takes a lot of these though!"

"A lot of quarters." Acknowledged Vicki. They reached the inside of the mall, bustling with loads of loud teenagers and hurried looking adults. Vicki followed Jamie towards the arcade, all the while taking in the sights and sounds of the busy space. Her Micro sensors picked up on many conversations around the large food court around the mall's entrance plaza. She honed in on an argument between two teenagers at a table set outside a sandwich kiosk, a girl and possibly her boyfriend.

"You said we were going to go see a movie Sunday night!" Hissed the girl, with an angry and hurt face. The boy sank down in his chair, silent. "You always come up with some excuse not to go out with me! You like your friend so much, why don't you go marry him!" She shouted out at him. The girl got up from the table, leaving the sad looking boy all alone. Vicki also had picked up on a conversation between two food workers at the pizza kiosk, some panicked dealings about where one of their rings had disappeared to- but that conversation didn't seem as interesting.

"Okay Vicki!" Chirped Jamie as the two of them walked into the Tilt Arcade. "The point of Pac-Man is to get him to eat all the little white dots and avoid the ghosts. If you get hit by the ghosts, it's game over." They headed towards the Pac-Man cabinet in the center of the arcade, a small group of kids had begun to follow them to the machine. The kids surrounded Jamie and Vicki as the two of them closed in on the colorful arcade game. Jamie looked around at everyone. "What's the deal?" He asked.

"That's Vector's machine! No one plays that one." Said one of the bigger kids, stepping forward from the small gang. All the other kids nodded in agreement. Jamie looked around.

"Well, who's Vector?" He asked.

"Vector's the best Pac-Man player in the whole state!" Said the big kid. He tapped the screen, showing Jamie the initials on the high score screen. "He's the only name in all the high scores, no one can even touch the number five spot!"

"VCR." Read Jamie out loud. The entire high score screen was filled with so many zeroes it boggled his mind. "Wow! He's got over a million points on some of these! His lowest score is higher than my highest one." He looked at the big kid and leaned on the machine. "I don't think we're in any trouble of beating his score, my sister here hasn't even played Pac-Man once in her entire life." He said with a smile.

"Well this is his favorite Pac-Man machine, and everyone knows it. You better not play it and mess up the joystick or anything, cause he'll find out, and then, he'll find you!" Said the big kid with a small amount of dramatic flair.

"I'm not that worried about it, we'll be careful." Said Jamie, unmoved by the scary speech. Vicki looked on as Jamie plugged a quarter into the slot of the colorful Pac-Man arcade cabinet. He pointed out the various icons on the pregame screen and began explaining it all to her. "See, Vicki, you want to eat the little white dots and not hit the ghosts- but if you eat a yellow dot… the ghosts change and you can eat them too! They change back pretty fast though, so look out!" He said.

"I'll play the first life and you get the next one. Now watch the big J at work!" said Jamie. He shook his wrists loose and placed one hand on the joystick control. Some cheerful electronic tune played, and the game started up. Vicki watched closely. She watched both Jamie's hand movements with the arcade machine's joystick, and the parameters of the ghost movements on the screen in relation to the little yellow sprite. Her on board graphing calculators began dividing the ghosts into separate categories, and also began computing the maximum speed and distance the yellow sprite could travel away from the ghosts, to the ghosts, and all around the strange maze-like walls.

"You can eat the bouncing fruit for more points too." Continued Jamie. The crowd of kids had grown, and all eyes were on Jamie and Vicki as he worked the controls. Jamie's palms began sweating. He had never had an audience at the local market where he and Reggie usually played. His hand slipped off the stick for a brief second and the pink ghost ended his run.

"Darn it!" He exclaimed. "Oh well, you see what to do, right?"

"Right." Replied Vicki. She stepped up to the controls of the machine as Jamie stepped aside. Vicki noted that her height differential would cause a loss of visibility, and so she slightly stood on her tip toes. Some of the kids in the surrounding group laughed out. The second run began, and Vicki applied the collected data from Jamie's play onto the current circumstances of the board. The ghosts closed in quickly, but she didn't move the yellow sprite at all.

"Vicki!…" Jamie had started to warn her, but Vicki had already sprung into action. With seemingly no space between two of the ghosts, and the other two flanking her position, she crept in between the two ghosts and immediately crept back out of the small gap, causing the kids in the group to gasp and cheer. The strange movement offset the flanking ghosts, and Vicki moved past them, collecting dots as she went. Then she began to systematically zig-zag down the maze, causing all of the ghosts to follow her in an erratic and mostly harmless pattern behind her. The crowd began cheering and shouting even louder, and Jamie stood with his mouth open.

Vicki cleared the first stage, and the second, third, and fourth. She maximized her potential score by leading the ghosts into a self-defeating loop logic, she would eat a yellow dot just with enough distance between them and her so that she could eat them all before the reset time. She also was able to accurately predict fruit tokens appearing in the maze and would place the sprite in the vicinity accordingly. She was too fast for the arcade machine, and Jamie realized it. This was pretty much cheating.

"Uh, we better go, Vicki!" Said Jamie nervously. "Mom'll be looking for us pretty quick!"

"Okay." Said Vicki. She stepped down from the arcade cabinet, leaving the yellow sprite to it's fate. One of the kids from the crowd jumped up and down excitedly. He pointed at the screen for everyone to see, the other kids also started trying to get a better look.

"She's the number 3 spot! In just 10 minutes!" Said the boy very loudly. "Wait little girl! What's your initials?!" He asked. Jamie thought better of turning around and telling them, but before the two of them could get out of the door, Vicki answered.

"V. A. L. " She said loudly enough to be heard. Jamie tugged at her arm.

"Oh no! Vicki! Quiet! We don't want that Vector guy to show up and try to start something!" He took her by the hand and led her out, running out of the arcade. The boy at the cabinet filled in the initials on the third highest score, _VAL_.

Joan Lawson looked longingly at the poster hanging in the hallmark window inside the mall. Any passersby might have thought she was admiring the dress the woman on the poster was wearing, but they would have been quite wrong. She was in fact transfixed by the message at the bottom of the poster. _Paid for by elect Lindsey Marshall for city council._

Flashes of a busy life, full of very important decisions and responsibilities filled her mind. Joan Lawson, for parks and streets supervisor! Now that would be something. No more boring domestic decorating and cooking, but plenty of domestic trade and finance instead!

"Oh, dream on Joan." She told herself. She continued out of the mall's overly busy center and waded her way through the throngs of shoppers and loiterers towards the mall entrance, where she was to meet back up with the kids. She had forsaken the JC penny as the lines were always so much longer, and there was always one lady with a book full of coupons. Instead, the Sears store had sufficed quite nicely for her family's needs.

Most of what was in her shopping bags were normal affair. Shirts for Jamie, socks and a new tie for Ted. Even Vicki had a new outfit, a few sizes up in fact. Ted had discussed with her earlier in the week that he was planning to use Vicki's modular height adjustment again, whatever that meant, to add another half inch or so slowly over the next month. Of course, she would never get past a certain height, and no amount of make up was going to move Vicki past much the age she was looking now. Joan frowned a bit at the thought of that.

She had reached the mall entrance and started to survey the area for the kids. As usual, they had scampered off against her request, probably into the toy store. A smile crossed her face as she envisioned Vicki dragging Jamie into the Radioshack instead. Joan put her bags down on a sitting area table outside the mall, and rubbed the back of her neck, looking up towards the blue sky.

The afternoon was almost too nice, and the sky was the picture perfect blue shade rarely seen outside of oil paintings. California was usually much more overcast on a cool afternoon such as this, but no one was going to complain about it. She closed her eyes and breathed in the serene still air.

Crash! The tranquil moment was torn asunder by the awful sound of glass shattered into a thousand pieces, hitting the ground violently as it fell. People began crowding around the busted out spectacular window that once greeted people at the Mall entrance. Joan had snapped from her daze confusedly, looking around for the culprit, half expecting to see Jamie or Vicki. A very ashamed looking older man with a golf bag waded through the crowd.

"Sorry! Sorry everyone! My fault, I'm sorry!" He said, blushing all the while. Joan shook her head and collected the bags from the table. The man bent down and plucked from the remains of the window a sizable golf ball. "I wasn't paying attention… I'll, I'll pay for the damage…" he stammered out.

Just then Vicki and Jamie came out of the crowd to meet their mother. Jamie's expression was slightly worried, and he took a glance over his shoulder. "Hi Mom." He said. Vicki took a shopping bag out of Joan's tired arms.

"Hi Mom." Repeated Vicki. Joan looked the two of them over.

"Didn't I ask you two to stick around the front of the mall?" She asked with a hand on her hip. Jamie nodded and smiled.

"Well we're here now, aren't we? I just wanted to show Vicki around the mall- you know, the sights, the sounds!" Said Jamie.

"The arcade." Vicki finished for him. Jamie winced and averted his eyes from his mother's penetrating gaze.

" _The arcade_?" Asked Joan. "You ran off with Vicki to the arcade? With what money?"

"I have three dollars and seventy-five cents in quarters." Began Vicki, producing the shining coins from her pinafore pocket. "I also have seven dimes and one nickel." Joan looked at the quarters in Vicki's hand, slightly awed by their flawless sheen.

"Vicki, where did you get all these quarters?… and how did you get them all so clean?" She asked. Vicki placed the coins in Joan's hand.

"I got them from the fountain over there." She said, pointing to the large marble fountain in front of the mall entrance. "They were all sitting at the bottom."

"OH! Vicki!" Exclaimed Joan. She hurriedly handed the coins back to Vicki. "Go throw them back in dear…" Vicki left with the coins towards the fountain, unaware of any kind of wrong doing. Joan turned sharply to Jamie. "I can't believe you'd let her do that Jamie! She could have gotten in real trouble!" Jamie looked up with a genuinely surprised face.

"What?! I didn't tell her to do anything! She did that all by herself, I swear!" Jamie emptied his pants pockets inside out to show his mother that he was truly devoid of any ill gotten coinage. "Honest! See? I've got nothing but the air in my pockets~!" He said hopefully. Joan eyed him, still a little suspicious.

"Oh? And just how many quarters did you two spend at that arcade while I was shopping?" She asked. Jamie crossed his arms proudly.

"Just one, Vicki cleared four stages of Pac-Man on one quarter." He said. Vicki returned with an empty hand and stood by her mother in stand-by mode. Jamie continued. "She even got number 3 in high scores!"

"I didn't even have to use a ladder." Chimed in Vicki. Joan smiled.

"That's nice Vicki." She said. "But you can't take coins from fountains like that, it's a very bad thing to do, okay?" Vicki turned to look at her.

"It's a bad thing to do, okay." She replied. Joan nodded approvingly. "Why is it a bad thing to do?" Asked Vicki. Joan's mouth dropped slightly, and Jamie smiled big.

"Well…" Started Joan. "All of those coins are kind of like wishes that people make. Like when people wish on a shooting star, or they blow out candles on their birthday cakes." She said. Then she took Vicki by the arm, leading her to the fountain and leaving the shopping bags with a reluctant Jamie. "Come on, I'll show you, and then we'll go to the car." They reached the fountain and Joan searched in her purse until she found a stray nickel. She put it in Vicki's hand. "Now you make a wish, and toss the coin into the fountain~!" Said Joan.

"A wish." Repeated Vicki. She stood there with the coin in her hand as still as a statue, seemingly frozen in place. Joan looked on, becoming a little uncomfortable with just how still Vicki truly was, anyone passing by might have easily concluded that the girl in the red and white pinafore was indeed a statue, or at least one of those odd ball art projects from the local college. Jamie raised an eyebrow and finally spoke up.

"Come on Vicki, how long does your wish have to be?" He asked.

"I don't know how to wish." Said Vicki, in a matter of fact sort of way. Joan grimaced a little. Ted had always been adamant that Vicki didn't really have any aspirations or wants, and it was even less likely that she might have a hidden desire or flight of fancy bouncing around in her parallel processing unit. Whatever that meant. Still, she always hoped with a fond feeling that one day the little robot in her life would become just like a real girl.

"Vicki, there's nothing you want, or would like to have happen?" Asked Joan, patting Vicki's shoulder. She rummaged again through her purse and produced another round bit of metal. She took it in her hand and held it out in front of her, her eyes on Vicki the whole time. "I'll show you! Watch!" She said. Joan walked up to the fountain and closed her eyes. "You make your wish silently, and then toss in the coin like this." She dropped the coin into the water, sploosh, it sank quickly to the bottom with a clink.

"I see." Said Vicki, moving closer to the fountain. "I can wish for anything?" She asked.

"Anything at all!" Said Joan, reassuringly. Vicki stood in silence for a moment, and then closed her eyes just before tossing the nickel into the babbling fountain. Sploosh, it too went sinking to the bottom.

"I would've wished for the winning lottery ticket." Said Jamie, tromping up behind them. "Or at least the world's biggest chili-dog." He said, patting his belly. He turned his attention back to the crowd around the mall entrance again. People were helping to get broken glass out of the walkway. "What'd you wish for, Vicki?"

"Ah-ah!" Said Joan. "You're not supposed to say, Jamie, or it may not come true! Come on you two, let's head to the car." She smiled and looked at Vicki, who in turn was standing and staring very intently at the water. "What's wrong Vicki?" She asked.

"My wish didn't come true." She said with a tiny pouted bottom lip.

"Well honey, it's not always an instant thing to have your wish granted~." Said Joan. "Sometimes it can take a while." Vicki cocked her head to the side still focusing on the water.

"Then we'll be waiting here for a while." She said. Joan raised her eyebrows.

"Why's that?" She asked, a little bemused.

"Because my wish was that you hadn't thrown the car key into the fountain." Replied Vicki.

Ted waited impatiently for Brandon Brindle to finish his stupid idea. He regretted even having had the thought to carpool now. Carpooling on it's own was usually bad enough, but with a Brindle in the mix it had become an absolute test of endurance. It had been thirty grueling minutes since the trip home had began, and Ted was beginning to feel like the fool in a Grecian style tragedy. He looked up towards the sky, his face pressed against the window, and wondered if there was a parallel between himself and Prometheus.

"…Electric eels!" Finished Brandon, unaware of Ted's complete withdraw from the conversation. Ted didn't even care enough to wonder what Brandon had been rambling on about. Brandon began drumming on the steering wheel. "Eels, Teddy! Eels? Don't you think that's a great idea? Using the eels to power the rotors?" He asked.

"What about the water?" Asked Ted absently. He stared out the window at other people driving home from work, much more lucky than him at the moment. Some of them had hardly anyone to have to talk to at all!

"The water? Teddy haven't you been listening to me? We put the eels in an engine friendly oil base instead! It's surefire!" Said Brandon happily.

"Well there sure will be a fire involved." Said Ted, rousing himself to sit up straight in the seat. "I'm sorry Brandon, I just can't wrap my head around this whole SJ28 situation at work. I mean, what is Chesny's problem with the guys down in Games and Magic?" Ted adjusted his seatbelt and sighed out. "The hydraulics expo is in two months, now it looks like I'll be working every Saturday until then." He said.

"The problem isn't Games and Magic, it's Winston! Everyone knows that!" Said Brandon.

"Winston? The head of R and D? What, are Winston and Chesny old rivals or something?" Asked Ted.

"No no, he's just a jerk. Shoots everybody down and takes no prisoners at staff meetings! Plus, he walks all over anyone to get ahead." Said Brandon. Ted looked on silently.

"Yeah, that sounds pretty hard to get along with." He said slightly amused.

"You're telling me! I have to take lunch with him at least once a week at the supervisor meetings!" Said Brandon. "Sometimes he does this horrible tuna salad melt in the microwave. It's awful." Ted grimaced.

"That's almost inhuman." He joked.

"Well let me tell you this, all laughing aside, Chesny is right! Don't cross Winston, buddy boy, or you'll be sorry! He's vindictive over the smallest things- never forgives never forgets! I don't even make eye contact with him." Said Brandon, staring out at the road as if he was having some kind of Vietnam war flashback.

"So asking him very nicely to free up some data stores isn't going to go work, huh?" Asked Ted. Brandon gave out an almost maniacal laugh.

"He won't even talk to you if you haven't earned his respect." Said Brandon. Then he dramatically slowly turned his gaze to Ted. "Or at least… his wrath." He said. A car in the next lane over honked angrily, and Brandon yelped, yanking his car back into it's own lane. Some obscenity was being yelled from the little blue car next to his, but thankfully the noise of the surrounding traffic drowned anything audible out. Ted sighed out and looked out the window towards the sky again. By now, the golf course would be far too crowded to enjoy.

Vicki stood in front of the main bathroom mirror and looked carefully at herself in the mirror's reflection. Her new dress seemed slightly loose, and hung on her quite differently than her other wardrobe selections. To top that off, the new pair of open toed sandals that Joan had gotten for her were oversized, and her toes barely cleared the first strap. Something had gone wrong, and she could not reconcile the difference between her physical measurements and the clothing that she now wore. The data seemed to speak for itself, Joan had always bought the right size of clothing for everyone in the household, so it stood to reason that the problem was not in her ability to shop.

She spied one of Joan's magazines sitting atop the bathroom vanity and zoomed in on the woman on it's cover. There was something to extrapolate from all of Joan's magazines concerning female measurements, and Vicki seemed to be missing whatever it was. She turned so that she could see her back in the mirror, mimicking the woman's pose on the magazine cover. She even tilted her head like the woman, but it still didn't make her dress fit any better.

Vicki consulted her bubble memory module. Several photos and television images of cover girls and runway models ran through her visual matrix, leaving wireframes of the human form as they disappeared. Using the same kind of graphing ability as before with the arcade game, Vicki started putting together an algorithm to find out what measurement connected all the models together.

"Do you like the new dress, Vicki?" Asked Joan, as she walked past the bathroom door. She peeped in and looked at Vicki's reflection. She laughed out at the scene taking place in front of the vanity. Vicki returned to her normal standing pose and continued looking into the mirror. "You look adorable in it." Said Joan, catching herself from laughing again.

"I look adorable." She repeated. Then she grabbed the magazine on the vanity and turned to open the door for Joan. She held the magazine up so that her mother could see the woman on the front and continued. "I was trying to look like this."

"Like this? What do you mean, like you want to look like her?" Said Joan, taking the magazine and turning it over in her hands. "Vicki honey, this is a professional model, she has teams that put on all her makeup and a whole army of photographers to take the best picture they can find." She said, trying to reassure the little girl in the slightly loose pink dress.

"You put makeup on me." Vicki said, looking up at Joan.

"Well that's not what I mean… uhm, some of these girls even get plastic surgery done on their faces and bodies to look this good. It's a lot more than just your run of the mill makeup we're used to." Said Joan. Vicki took Joan's hand and placed it on her arm so that Joan could feel.

"I'm already plastic." Said Vicki, hoping to clarify for her mother that her skin wasn't really skin at all. Joan laughed and tapped Vicki's shoulder with the magazine.

"You're already pretty enough, Vicki. Did you read something in here that put this in your little head.?" She said. Vicki turned back to the mirror and looked into it.

"I have been trying to find what makes clothing models fit into their respective clothing so effectively." Said Vicki. "I have calculated one unifying trait that they all share." Joan put her hands on her hips and sighed out.

"If it's their hourglass figure, you're gonna have to take that up with Ted." She said, half jokingly. Vicki turned back to Joan and looked up at her.

"You also share the unified trait." She observed. Joan raised an eyebrow, looking down at her own figure a little surprised.

"Oh? What's that?" She asked with genuine interest.

"Height." Answered Vicki, and with that she stretched her legs to an awkward, almost monstrous length, bringing her up to a hardy 6 ft. and one inch disposition. Joan looked up at her newly beanpole daughter and nearly shrieked.

"Oh Vicki! No! Don't do that!" She exclaimed out. Vicki returned to her normal leg length and looked back up at her. Joan gave her a slight smile and turned Vicki back around to face the mirror once again. She adjusted the waistband of the dress and tied the neck collar a little tighter. "You'll be taller soon enough hon. Well that's why I bought you this dress, so you can grow into it." Joan said reassuringly.

"I'll be taller soon enough." Repeated Vicki. Then she turned to face Joan and looked up at her. "When is soon enough?" She asked expectantly. Joan scrunched her mouth to one side and folded her arms.

"As soon as your father gets around to it I guess." She said. Then she unfolded her arms and ruffled Vicki's hair. "Something tells me you're in a hurry to grow up, what's the rush?"

"I'm not the one in a hurry." Said Vicki. Then she held her palm up to show Joan the differences in height as she talked. "Everyone else is in the hurry. Reggie has grown 2 and one half inches since the end of the last school year, Jamie has grown 2 and one half as well, and Harriet has grown 3 inches and one quarter." Joan's eyes widened in surprise.

"Harriet has grown three inches in three months?!" She said with amazement. She shook her head and returned to the conversation. "And you're feeling left behind because of it." She said.

"Left behind, especially at the Ferris wheel." Replied Vicki. She held her palm up again, this time a little above her head to show Joan. "You must be this tall to ride."

"Aha! I knew it." Said Joan, leading Vicki out of the bathroom and into her and Ted's bedroom. She began to search through her closet and continued. "You may not believe this, Vicki, but I was the shortest girl in my high school until the eleventh grade! It took me until the tenth grade before I was even 5'4!" She said. She found her old shoe box and grabbed it, turning quickly to Vicki.

"For me to reach a height of 5'4 by the tenth grade, I'll need to get an average of 2.3 inches taller per year starting now." Said Vicki.

"Oh no you won't! Not with these." Said Joan, opening the shoe box so that Vicki could see inside it. Inside were two very well kempt red polished pumps. "I wore these on my first date! I remember this boy, Erik Murray, he asked me to the movies- but I was so afraid that he wouldn't be able to see me eye to eye that I bawled into my pillow the night before the date." Vicki looked up to Joan.

"Is seeing eye to eye important on a first date?" She asked. Joan smiled and took the pumps out of the box. She sat Vicki down on the bed and began the process of switching out her new sandals for the old pumps.

"Well, sort of. I was afraid of how silly I would feel if he tried to give me a smooch at the theater if he could only kiss the top of my head. I was just short enough that it could've happened that way, too." She said. "Then, my father bought me these, and left them outside of my bedroom door the very morning of my date." She smiled at the memory of her brave single parent-father.

"Was he able to see your eyes with these on?" Asked Vicki, looking down at her new 3 inch pumps.

"Oh he sure could, but it wasn't my eyes that good old Erik Murray cared about. He turned out to be a real toad." Said Joan. She tapped Vicki's feet. "Well these fit you just about perfect! Alright Vicki!" She said excitedly, clapping her hands together in glee.

"Alright Vicki!" Repeated Vicki, also clapping her hands together.

"Let's try them out, try to walk around in them!" Said Joan, standing aside. "It can take a little time to get used to them."

"Okay." Replied Vicki. She took one step forward from the bed, and immediately fell face first onto the carpeted floor. Joan covered her mouth with one hand, trying to stifle her laugh, and helped Vicki up with her other.

"Like I said, it can take a little time!" She said, no longer able to contain her giggling.

Jamie sat on the sofa in the family living room and stared at the T.V. There was something strange in the news about some kind of rise in golfing related accidents that week. There didn't seem to be any hysteria yet, but with any luck something spicy would happen soon. The front door of the house opened and Jamie turned his attention to his father, Ted, looking unusually sullen as he entered and closed the door behind him.

"Hi Dad!" Said Jamie. He gave his father a big smile, which was returned with a tired groan.

"Hello Jamie." Said Ted, tromping through the living room and into the kitchen. Jamie turned off the television and followed his father. He opened the swinging door just in time to see Ted drinking the last bit of orange juice straight from it's container.

"Wow, looks like you had a rough day at the office!" Said Jamie, sitting down at the kitchen table. Ted joined him at the table, leaning back in his chair, eyes wide and looking off into the ceiling.

"Jamie, I've just spent forty five minutes in a car with Brandon Brindle. I think there are crash test dummies that have had more relaxing drives than the one I just had." He said. Jamie smiled ear to ear.

"Maybe you should invent a pair of really thick earplugs!" He said. Ted smiled weakly and put his head down on the table. "Or an emergency ejection seat, like in James Bond!" He added. Ted popped his head back up, a smile across his face.

"Actually… that's not a bad idea, Jamie!" Said Ted, imagining Brandon's surprised face. "Especially if it's on his side of the car!"

"Wait, does his car have a sun roof?" Asked Jamie.

"It will soon!" Said Ted, sitting up and waggling his eyebrows. Jamie laughed out just as the kitchen door swung open again. Joan walked through the door, followed closely by Vicki.

"Well hi guys!" Said Joan, heading over to Ted's side. "Did you have a good day at work?" She asked Ted.

"No, and the ride home was even worse." Answered Ted. "Brandon talked at me the entire way home, he even missed our exit because he was talking so much! It wouldn't have been so bad, but then he missed it again when he was fiddling with his car stereo." Joan patted his shoulder and gave him a peck on the top of his head.

"So does this mean you won't be carpooling anymore?" She asked.

"Joanie, the next time I'm stuck in a car with Brandon Brindle, make sure I'm in my absolute best suit and tie." Said Ted.

"Your best suit and tie? Why?" Asked Joan.

"Because it'll be in a hearse!" He shouted. Joan smiled wide.

"What's a hearse?" Asked Vicki. Jamie got up from his chair to pour himself a glass of milk.

"It's the kind of car that the Munsters drive on their show. You know, the black and white one we watched the other night?" He said, pouring carefully. "That's what normal people get driven to their funerals in."

"The Munsters." Vicki repeated. Then she mimicked the cackling laughter of Grandpa Munster. Joan looked on, a little disturbed by it's perfect imitation.

"That's cute…" She said. Then she looked over to Jamie. "Jamie, why don't you tell your father what else you taught Vicki today?" She said, leaving Ted's side to take down some pans from the kitchen cupboard. Ted turned his attention to Jamie.

"What did you teach Vicki?" He asked with genuine interest. Jamie widened his eyes, a big helping of milk held up to his mouth.

"Oh… well- I thought it would be neat to show Vicki how to play a video game at the arcade." He said, quickly chugging down the milk. Ted laughed.

"There's really no need for that, Jamie. She can play things a little more complicated than any video game." He said proudly. "She could play plot the vector path for NASA's new satellite if she was programmed to."

"I calculate that my path will surpass Vector's path by a margin of fifty thousand points." Said Vicki. Jamie choked a bit on his milk. "I can replace all of his high scores on Pac-Man with one dollar and twenty five cents." She finished.

"Vector?" Asked Ted looking at Vicki. "Is that somebody's name? Vector?"

"Vector is the best Pac-Man player in the whole state." Vicki told him. Jamie nodded and put his empty cup in the sink.

"I didn't know she was going to be so good at it, honest! I just wanted to show her something new." He said. Ted sat up in his chair and turned to look at Vicki and Jamie together.

"This wouldn't have had anything at all to do with the Pac-Man state championship in November, would it Jamie?" He asked. Jamie shook his head, trying his best to look innocent. Joan scoffed and looked over her shoulder.

"Pac-Man championship?" She asked. Ted smiled.

"Sure, all the computer nerds at United Robotronics are buzzing about it, we've even got a few of our guys entering the first round qualifiers on Sunday, right at that very arcade." He said. Then he shook a finger at Jamie. "All the more reason why Vicki is not to go back in there- she'd draw too much attention, Jamie, and it would be completely dishonest to have her go up against the human players."

"Don't worry Dad, I don't think we'll be back there for a while." Said Jamie. "I don't want to meet that Vector kid after Vicki broke one of his records." Ted smiled.

"Kid? Jamie, most of these so called serious players are grown adults." He said. Jamie frowned. "At any rate, no more Pac-Man for Vicki." Said Ted, looking over to Vicki. Vicki opened her mouth and mimicked the electronic sound of Pac-Man getting pummeled by a ghost.

"It's game over." She said.

"Sorry Vicki." Said Jamie, putting his hands in his pockets. Vicki walked over to where Jamie was at the sink, stumbling a tiny bit as she went. Jamie looked her up and down, suddenly realizing that he and Vicki were now of equal height. They were eye to eye. Ted also noticed the new taller Vicki, and her odd new walk as well.

"Vicki, what's wrong with your legs?" He asked getting up from his seat. Vicki looked down at her legs and felt at them, struggling a little to keep her balance.

"Both of my legs are functioning normally, and I know how to use them." She answered.

"That's enough MTV for you." Said Joan with a laugh. "I put her in my old pumps to make her a little taller, that's all." She began to explain. "She's been flipping through some of my clothing catalogs and I guess she just wanted to be taller." Ted put his hands on his hips.

"She wanted?" He asked with a hint of disbelief. "Are you sure you don't mean you maybe thought she should be taller?" He asked Joan. Joan gave him a tiny scowl.

"No, of course not. Really Ted, we were talking and she told me she felt left out because all the other kids are growing up." Said Joan. "Tell him about the Ferris wheel, Vicki." Vicki looked up at Ted and put her palm up to show him the height requirement.

"I must be this tall to ride. Get taller or go ride the teacups kid." She quoted, nodding in agreement with Joan.

"Well that explains it." Said Ted with an almost disillusioned look on his face. "The operator at the fair must have unknowingly programmed Vicki with a new task imperative for her to complete." Joan's heart sank a little.

"Oh~." She said, doing her best to hide the small tinge of sadness creeping up on her voice. She turned back to begin prepping some vegetables for the evening meal. "I thought maybe she just wanted to fit in."

"Joanie, believe me, Vicki couldn't care less about fitting in, or feeling left out, it was just a reaction to a voice input command." Said Ted, trying but failing to consul her. He wrapped his arms around her shoulders. "Why do I suddenly feel like I just stole some little kid's balloon?" He asked. Before Joan could answer, the phone rang out.

"I've got it!" Said Jamie, racing over to the phone. (Probably to escape the overly affectionate moment between two old people.) Joan turned to face Ted, a carrot in her hand.

"You know, for a second there I really thought that Vicki might have wanted something for herself for a change, and it made my day. I thought we had a new mother-daughter moment going on." She said, all the while shaking the pointy end of the carrot at Ted. She saw the end of the carrot close at his chest and turned back to her prepping with a little bit of a blush. Ted dusted orange bits off of his tie and turned to face Vicki. Jamie had been on the phone the entire time talking, and had started scribbling something down on a piece of nearby scratch paper.

"There's nothing saying you don't have a mother-daughter thing at all Joan." Said Ted. He quickly went over to Vicki and patted her shoulder. "As a matter of fact, look at her! Wearing your old shoes- you know, I wouldn't be surprised if she isn't developing a whole subroutine just around you!" Joan turned to look at him, an expression of almost dismay on her face. It still amazed her how quickly Ted went from English to techno-babble so easily. Ted caught the look and sighed out.

"Well, that's sweet of her, I guess…" Joan said jokingly.

"You know what I mean, she's devoted to her mommy dearest. I'm sure of it!" Said Ted, folding his arms and looking down at Vicki. "One day she'll have real emotion. We've been seeing them develop slowly over the years." He said. Jamie hopped over to join them at the kitchen island, a smile on his face.

"Can I go with Reggie to the record store tonight? His older brother can drive us there, and there's an awesome looking band signing records!" Jamie handed the scrap of paper to Ted. On it was a phone number and a happy face. "See, that's the number of the record store if you'd have to get a hold of us!" He said. Ted looked at Joan, who in turn shrugged.

"Can you be back in time for dinner? It's going to be around 7 o'clock." She told him. Jamie nodded ecstatically.

"You bet! I wouldn't miss whatever it is we're having!" He said running for the door. Joan laughed and went back to her prepping.

"Hold it!" Said Ted. "Why not take Vicki along with you? She's never seen a record store yet, and besides, we need someone to keep an eye on you around all those punk rocker girls." Jamie smiled weakly, searching for anything he could think of to get out of dragging his little sister along.

"Ah… well… no offense Dad, but she's walking kind of funny tonight- and I wouldn't want anybody making fun of her and making her feel bad." Jamie said, with his best false concern. "Plus, it's kind of like a guys only thing, quality boy time."

"Well, thank you for thinking of her feelings first, Jamie." Said Joan with a hint of knowing mockery in her voice. Ted stood there, hands on his hips, laughing at Jamie's brash use of psychology.

"Get out of here." He said with a smile. Jamie headed for the door, turning to face Vicki as he left.

"No hard feelings, Vicki!" He said with a tiny salute. Vicki turned on her heels to face him.

"You always come up with some excuse not to go out with me! You like your friend so much, why don't you go marry him!" She said, obviously mimicking someone else. With that she turned and stumbled out through the swinging kitchen door and into the living room. The three of them looked at each other, slightly stunned.

"Looks like she's developing faster than I thought." Said Ted, taking a bite of a crunchy orange carrot slice.

The record store. Three more beautiful words have rarely ever been spoken in the English language. It's long been held as the answer to many of life's most pressing questions, and has been the solution to many a boring night. This record store in particular, Rockin' Bach's, was more than just the ordinary everyday record dealership- there were many treasures there to be found! The newest punk inspired clothing (for example) or even some incredible wall length posters, or patches, pins, buttons, novelty gag toys, collectible band inspired cups and mugs, T- shirts, back packs and purses, so many things that it would take an entire day to browse the full inventory! They also sold records.

More special than any of that, every first Friday of each month, a new- or at the very least slightly unheard of band would take up residence at Rockin' Bach's, and for the entire day sign their newest albums and cassette tapes. Jamie was well aware that most of these bands were doomed to obscurity, but he knew that mathematically at least one band would make it big. Maybe even mega-big. Big enough for the mall circuit… or even Dick Clark big, and Jamie was going to have that signed first edition album cover. He even had a few photos of himself with the various bands. Or, more accurately, he had photos of himself standing several feet in front of the blurry often cut-off bands.

"Man, how many records do you have now Jamie? Where do you keep putting them!?" Asked Reggie, Jamie's best friend. Reggie himself was no sucker, and he too had a ploy to use on the bands. He always brought with him the newly purchased band T-shirt. "You're gonna' run out of closet pretty soon!" Said Reggie.

"I don't sweat it, I've got a whole system worked out for these babies!" Said Jamie, wiggling the album cover in his hand. They were stuck in quite the long line. Longer than usual in fact, and Jamie waited impatiently, switching from one foot to another and then back again. "What's the hold up? Is it me or is this the longest line ever?" Asked Jamie to Reggie. Reggie shrugged.

"They must be more well known than we thought." He said.

"That's him! That's the one!" Shouted a young kid from somewhere in the store. Jamie and Reggie struggled to see what the excitement might be. They were both equally shocked to see the young boy pointing in their direction. Jamie recognized the boy from earlier in the day, as the one who had asked Vicki for her initials at the arcade.

"Uh oh…" He said. Reggie looked at him, rolling his eyes.

"What'd you do this time Jamie?! Everywhere we go, someone want's to jump us!" He exclaimed. A gaggle of teens and preteens surrounded the two of them.

"Oooooh- are you in big trouble!" Said the boy from the arcade. "Vector was super upset about the little girl beating his number 3 high score on _his_ cabinet!" Reggie looked over to Jamie, a confused look on his face.

"Say what? Vicki did what now?" He asked. Jamie laughed nervously.

"Oh… Vicki, she's a natural at Pac-Man… like a born high score champion." He said. "We were at the Tilt Arcade earlier today, and she got a few lucky runs on her first time."

"A few lucky runs?!" Asked a different teenager from the crowd. "She got third place against old Egghead!" He said with an overly loud voice. Then very audibly, the little group quieted down. The teenager cleared his throat, mumbled something about using the telephone and very quickly left. The rest of the kids dispersed very soon afterwards.

Jamie's sense of safety began to vanish and he looked around behind him. Reggie looked too, and jumped slightly at the sight of the figure that had materialized behind them. A very strange looking man in a white lab coat stood behind them, an album in his hand. Jamie thought that he looked like an escaped medical student from the hospital morgue, complete with the egghead and thick round glasses.

"Hi…" Said Jamie nervously. Reggie put his hand over his chest and backed up a ways from the spooky lab coat.

"Hey…" Said Reggie, a little weakly. The man flashed a little quick fake smile.

"Oh, I hope I didn't frighten you." He said, taking the record out of it's album cover, and inspecting it's outer rings. "I understand that you're one of the two children who cleared my number 3 best score at Tilt." He said absently, as he slid the record back into it's cover looking slightly disappointed. "Very impressive." He said, tucking the album into a stack of other records.

"Uh…" Began Jamie. "Well… I did help a little actually- a little bit… but my sister is the one who really set the score." He said trailing off. He nudged Reggie. "I'm terrible at Pac-Man, isn't that right Reg?"

"Oh uh- Pac-Man? What's that? I've never even heard of it." Said Reggie, regaining his composure. The lab coated man put his hands in his pockets.

"Hmm." He went, walking past Reggie to speak closer to Jamie. Jamie's eyes widened and he backed up slightly. The odd man continued talking at Jamie, inspecting another album cover. "Your older sister must be quite the arcade enthusiast. I'm something of a connoisseur myself." He said. "In fact I'm quite taken with the idea of this championship in a few months. The first round of the qualifying scores takes place this Sunday. Of course you're probably aware of that, you and your sister must have been saving your allowances up for it.." He finished, with a very slight smile and a chuckle.

Jamie gulped. The thought of this man finding out that Vicki was his younger sister made him a little worried. Thoughts began racing through Jamie's head, the kids telling him that Vector would find out about he and Vicki playing his machine and that he would find them kept replaying in his mind. Jamie cleared his throat again, but before he could try to worm his way out of the uncomfortable conversation, a familiar screeching voice came from the down the line of people.

"Hiyeeeee!" Harriet belted out, trouncing out of the line towards Jamie and the strange man, also known as Vector. "Jamie Lawson~! Did you follow me here to try to learn what my favorite kind of music is? I'll bet you're planning on serenading me later, aren't you?" She asked. For the first time in his life, Jamie happily greeted Harriet, even getting closer to her.

"Harriet!" He sang out. "What are you doing here? Are your parents here?" He asked hopefully. Harriet nodded her head, the ribbons in her pigtails shaking as she did so.

"Oh sure! I came here with my dad… he loves to come in and order his 8 tracks, whatever those are. Plus, it gets him out of the house! And he loves getting out of the house, especially when my mom is there." She said. Then she turned and pointed to Brandon Brindle, her father, who was at the front of the store talking excitedly to some bored looking twenty something girl behind the purchase counter. Jamie sighed out relieved, then turned back to face Vector with a new instilled confidence.

"Actually, it's my younger sister that played against your high score." Said Jamie, putting a hand on his hip. The man continued thumbing through the records, apparently un-phased by the revelation.

"She must have had a rather difficult time seeing over the controls." He answered back, more as an observation than a statement.

"You mean Vicki?" Asked Harriet. Jamie went to quickly shush her but it was too late, Harriet's mouth was already in go mode. "She's pretty short! Sometimes I think she's not even growing at all." Jamie grimaced, and noticed that Brandon Brendle had begun crossing the record store. Brandon saw the kids and waved to them excitedly, starting towards them.

"Vicki was it?" Asked the man. "I suppose then that those are her initials, VAL." He said, again almost absent from the conversation. He plucked a record from the shelf, clutching it tightly in his hands as if he had just found some exotic treasure. He smiled as he turned the album cover over to look at it's backside. "Fantastic! Splendid." He said. Jamie wasn't sure which the man was happy about, knowing Vicki's name, or finding the record.

"Hi kids!" Said Brandon Brindle, skipping down the other side of the record aisle. "Haha, you won't believe the great deal I just got on these old Earth, Wind and-" Before he could finish, he had seen the odd man in the lab coat on the other side of the aisle. Brandon dove to the floor as if an incoming swarm of bees was on the attack. The three kids looked at where Brandon Brindle had just been, perplexed and feeling abandoned.

"Daddy? What are you doing down there?" Asked Harriet. Brandon shooed her away without a word, covering his head. Jamie let out a depressed sounding sigh, and looked back at the man. The man too was looking in the direction of Brandon's social collapse.

"That man is a terminal case." Said the man in the lab coat, in a slow almost saddened manner. He shook his head in dismay and looked back to Jamie. "Well this has been a pleasant exchange." He said to Jamie, taking his treasure under his arm, and heading towards the purchase counter. "Goodbye, Jamie Lawson, maybe we'll see you and your sister on Sunday?" He said.

"What was that all about?" Asked Harriet. Reggie turned around to look at Jamie, his eyes still opened wide in surprise.

"That guy looked like Dr. Frankenstein's lab assistant! He gave me the willies!" He said, shivering with dramatic effect.

"I think that was Vector." Said Jamie, frowning a bit in concern. "Vicki broke one of his records on Pac-Man earlier today, and he's supposed to be the best Pac-Man player in the whole state. I can't believe he actually found us though! I thought all those kids were just trying to scare me!" Harriet had gone around the record aisle to retrieve her father. She kicked at his foot.

"Daddy! Get up! You're embarrassing even me!" She said. Brandon peaked his head up, scanning around for the man, Vector. He got up sheepishly, dusting himself off as he rose from the floor.

"Sorry honey bun- my shoe laces…" He said quietly, as he limped away towards the record store entrance. Harriet shrugged and looked over across the aisle to Jamie.

"Well, I guess I'm leaving then! Bye Jamie~!" She said. With that she went skipping along out the door with her father. Reggie turned to face Jamie.

"Man, that guy was intense! Do you think that guy really has it in for you?" He asked. "We should probably tell your folks, don't you think?" Jamie shook his head.

"No way, my dad was already mad enough about me taking Vicki into the arcade as it is… I don't even want to think about what he'd do if he found out that there's some whack-o asking about her high score!" Said Jamie, staring off into space. "He'll flip his lid, and my behind if we go back in there."

"Why would you guys go back? I mean that's pretty much where that guy lives." Said Reggie. He put his hand on his chest and shook his head. Jamie tapped his finger to his temple in thought.

"You heard him Reg, that arcade is hosting a championship there in November, and they'll pick the contenders from all the high scores!" He said. "There's probably some great big money prize involved."

"Come on Jamie, you said Vicki only beat his third highest score. Besides, that guy probably has a job- he can get all the quarters he needs to be the high score holder." Said Reggie. Jamie nodded with a smile on his face.

"Maybe, but Vicki would only need one!" He said, his mind on the ever increasing winner's purse. Reggie put a hand on his hip, very skeptical of Vicki's Pac-Man prowess.

"Is she really that good? Those people at the championship are all going to be pros!" He said. Jamie snapped back into reality, his father's words repeating in his mind. Dishonest.

"Maybe… it probably was just beginner's luck." He said, seriously considering Vicki's skills on the Pac-Man screen. He himself had realized that putting Vicki on the machine didn't seem fair earlier that day… but then gobs of money hadn't been a concern then.

"Well you better stay away from that guy at all costs! He looked like he was about as stable as Warren on a unicycle!" Said Reggie with a laugh. "Come on, let's go get these signed and go meet my brother- I think I'm done with this place." He said.

"Yeah…" answered Jamie, still daydreaming about the winner's circle.

The next morning Joan sat on the couch with her cup of coffee, watching her favorite morning weekend news program. It was only seven in the morning, but just by looking out the window she could tell the weather had shifted dramatically from the day before. The sky was dark with ominous looking clouds, and a fine mist had settled into the area. The weather in their corner of the state seemed to be pathologically bipolar. She returned to watching the youngish news personalities on the T.V. set, choosing to opt out of dealing with muddy shoes and soaked shirts.

"…We still don't know if Michelle is okay after that cart tipped over, but we'll let you all know as soon as we hear back from her and her camera man." Said a male reporter. The pretty blonde girl next to him turned to the camera and shrugged. "I've never seen a golf cart pick up so much speed before! I thought we were watching the Indy-500 at first!" She said. Just then, Ted had come down the stairs from the hallway into the living room area, looking a little dejected. Joan looked up at him.

"Vicki's cooking us all breakfast this morning!" She said quite happily. "I think she's making French toast!" Joan continued, eyeing Ted's choice of wardrobe. He was dressed for work, but wasn't in his usual suit.

"That's great, I'll take some to go." Said Ted, a little pathetically.

"Is something wrong?" Asked Joan. She sensed that her husband was in as dark a mood as the sky outside. Ted sighed out and joined her on the couch.

"Well…" He began with a sigh. "…There's a guy at work, Herbert Winston, everyone seems to think that he's a real bulldog, and I need his help if were going to get our hydraulic truck lift system ready for the expo in November." He said. Then Ted stole a sip of coffee from Joan's mug. She playfully slapped his hand away from her coffee mug and nodded.

"Well, I'm sure you can talk him into helping you with whatever it is you need. You can be a very charming man, at times, Ted Lawson." She told him. Ted smiled and adjusted his tie.

"I think that's just how I'll approach him, Joan. I'll say- Hi! I'm Ted Lawson, a very charming man." He said. "Even Brandon gets stonewalled by this guy. No, I'm going to have to bargain with him if I want to be successful. The problem is I don't really have any bargaining chips… in the poker game of life, I'm cashed out before I even get to the table." Joan patted his shoulder in sympathy. The swinging kitchen door opened up slightly and Vicki peeked her head through the door to talk to the two of them.

"The French toast is ready." She said. Joan and Ted both got up from the couch.

"Sorry Vicki, but I'll have to take mine to go." Said Ted. Vicki nodded and produced two paper bags from behind the door.

"I heard you." She said. "I also packed your lunch for you." Ted smiled and took the bags as he and Joan entered the kitchen.

"Thank you Vicki. It's nice to have a child in the house who you don't have to yell at just to be heard." Said Ted. With that he gave a quick peck on the cheek to Joan. "Okay ladies- I'll see you around three!" He said, leaving through the back door of the house. Joan waved at him as he left, and sat down at the kitchen table. Vicki had already set a place for Joan.

"Was Jamie up yet this morning?" Joan asked Vicki, as she finished her last bit of coffee. Vicki tilted her head, concentrating on listening.

"No, but he's awake now." She said. Joan cut a piece of Vicki's oddly colored French toast and put it to her mouth. "He's in the shower, singing 'Girls just want to have fun' by Cyndi Lauper. We watched her music video on MTV last night." Joan laughed out and nearly choked on her toast.

"Really Vicki?" She asked giggling. Vicki nodded, standing at the table and ready to pour Joan more coffee.

"He's off-key and forgetting multiple verses." She added. "He's turned the shower off now." Joan smiled and took another cup of coffee from Vicki. She looked down at Vicki's feet- she had returned into her usual little black Mary Jane's. Joan cut off another piece of French toast with her fork.

"What happened with wanting to be taller Vicki? Were those pumps too hard to walk in?" She asked taking a bite of the toast. She noted that there was something a bit off in the flavor. Vicki set a place at the table for Jamie as she talked.

"My safety protocols won't allow me to wear those shoes while I'm cooking." She stated. Joan nodded, fully aware that Vicki was worse at walking in heels than some men.

"That's okay dear, we can start you off with some smaller pumps anyways." Said Joan. Jamie burst through the swinging kitchen door, wrapped in his bathrobe and pajamas. He looked especially thrilled this morning.

"Good morning!" He sang out, sitting down at the table with his mother. "Mmm! Is that French toast? What's the special occasion?" He asked looking up to Joan. She nodded her head at Vicki, who was grabbing a plate of toast for Jamie.

"Ask Vicki, she's the one that made it." Said Joan. Jamie looked over to Vicki a little skeptical.

"Really? No foolin'?" He asked. "Why so fancy Vicki?" Vicki put a plate full of French toast out in front of him.

"Because today is the last day the expired eggs can be safely consumed." She said. Jamie pushed his plate far away from him. Joan too stopped in mid bite of her own toast. Vicki went over to the stove and retrieved the empty egg carton. She pointed to the words as she read. "Sell by date August 28th." She said.

"Vicki! You mean that those are over a week expired?" Asked Joan taking the egg carton. She read the carton and frowned. "I meant to throw these away, they must've gotten pushed back all the way to the back of the fridge… Vicki, why didn't you use the newer eggs?" Vicki shrugged.

"The woman on the T.V. said it was okay to use old eggs as long as you use plenty of vanilla liqueur." Said Vicki. Joan thought about who Vicki could have possibly been watching. It finally hit her.

"Do you mean Julia Childs?" Asked Joan hopefully. "On the Saturday morning cooking show?" Vicki shook her head.

"No, Julia Childs on the Saturday Night Live show." She answered. Joan pushed her plate away too, and Jamie began giggling uncontrollably.

"Vicki, that's not Julia Childs, that's Dan Akroyd, he was joking!" Said Joan. "But thank you for going through the trouble of making this for us, it was very nice." Vicki cocked her head to the side.

"He was joking." Repeated Vicki. She processed the information for a second and then continued. "Was he also joking about using raw chicken as a first aid to help stop bleeding?" She asked.

"Yes." Answered Joan quite empathically. "Stick to band aids." She said. Jamie smiled and poked the French toast on Joan's plate with his fork.

"It's a good thing you weren't watching his fish in the blender routine!" He said. "That would've made dinner really interesting!" Vicki took the empty carton away to the garbage can as Joan got up from the kitchen table and collected the plates of toast.

"I'll make us some oatmeal, Jamie." She said. Jamie got up from the table too.

"You know mom, it's too bad dad won't let Vicki play at the arcade again. I think she should be allowed to do it if she wants." Said Jamie. Joan turned to him.

"Well like he said, it would be unfair to have her go up against the other players in that arcade." She said. Jamie stood next to Vicki and put his arm around her shoulder, showing his affection. Vicki looked over at him.

"Yeah, she sure is a whole lot faster than any of them." He said, laying on a little more sympathy than usual. "Geez mom…. Poor Vicki."

"What do you mean, poor Vicki?" Asked Joan as she put some water on to boil. Jamie frowned and pulled Vicki even closer to him.

"Well, we can let her get as smart as can be, but we can't let her show off how smart she is to anyone, and she can be super fast and super strong… but we can't let her go out for sports or track or anything. It's like all of her abilities are a curse." He said shaking his head, _very_ sympathetically. Joan looked at the two of them. Jamie stared back at her with his best wide eyed Bambi look. She understood instantly that this was about them competing at the arcade high score championship.

"Oh?" She said. "I never thought about it that way." She said. Jamie nodded and continued his ploy.

"Sure!" He said. "I mean if Vicki ever does want something for herself, or there's something that she wishes she could do, she'll never be able to! She's just too good at everything." Joan looked up from her oatmeal stirring, his words had hit a chord.

"Oh… I suppose that could be true…" She said, a little weakly.

"When we get to high school, Vicki would do awesome in track and field- make a whole bunch of friends, get lots of trophies… but it would all be dishonest." He said, shaking his head and looking at Vicki.

"That's enough Jamie, you made your point." Said Joan. "You guys aren't going back to that arcade and that's final." She said, still a little saddened by the unintentional truth in Jamie's words.

"Aw Mom." Jamie whined. "I'm just thinking of Vicki's feelings, honest!"

"My feelings." Said Vicki. Jamie nodded. "I feel your arm." She said shaking her head, not knowing what else to possibly say to him. Jamie released his grasp of her shoulders and turned his full attention to his mother.

"Mom, Dad is always saying how he wants Vicki to have new experiences and human 'interactions'! Yesterday everyone in the arcade was cheering her on! How's that for interaction?" He said. Joan measured out some sugar into her oatmeal, and turned to look at Jamie and Vicki.

"Jamie, no means no, mister, and your dad also said having her play that game wouldn't even be a challenge for her. I think you're just trying to get her into that arcade so she can win that championship for you." She said, shaking a spoon at Jamie. Jamie did his best to look indignant and shocked at the very idea.

"Me? I wouldn't even dream of trying to take the championship prize from Vicki! I think of her as my Pac-Man protégé! I taught her everything she knows about the game!" He said, once again putting a hand on Vicki's shoulder.

"Oh?" Said Joan. "Is that right?" she asked, turning back to her oatmeal.

"Yes." Began Vicki. "Jamie taught me all he knew about Pac-Man. By watching him play, I was able to gather data on how not to play the game." She said, putting her arm around Jamie, also very affectionately. Jamie's mouth dropped open in disbelief.

"Vicki! I showed you all about the ghosts and dots and stuff! You wouldn't know how to play if you hadn't watched me first." He said with a bit of a deflated ego.

"I also wouldn't know what happens when a ghost hits the little yellow sprite." She said, finishing his observation for him. Jamie swatted her arm away from his shoulder.

"Real nice, Vicki." He said, his brow furrowed. "You really know how to hurt a guy. Anything else you wanna tell me that you're better at than me?" Joan laughed out from the stove, her spoon clinking at the side of the oatmeal pan.

"Well, she also knows all the words to that Girls just wanna have fun song!" She said with a big smile. Jamie threw his arms up in the air as he walked out of the kitchen, fully disgraced.

"Great! That will teach me for ever trying to consider someone else's feelings! Just forget I mentioned the whole thing!" He said flustered. The swinging door swayed open more than usual in his wake. Vicki stood looking up at Joan.

"Yikes, he's really upset about this arcade business." Said Joan, looking down at Vicki. Vicki shook her head and sighed out.

"Geez Mom… Poor Jamie." She said, overly sympathetic. Joan removed her oatmeal from the stove.

"Maybe I should go talk to him." She said.

"About what?" Asked Vicki.

"Well about him wanting you to go to the arcade and play for that championship… he sounded like he's really invested in the idea." Said Joan. Vicki shrugged and shook her head.

"I have no memory of Jamie wanting me to win the championship at the arcade, so I don't know if he is really invested in the idea." She said. Joan gave out an annoyed groan.

"Oh- Ted has got to fix that! What's the last thing you remember us talking about before Jamie left?" She asked. Vicki walked over to the kitchen island and retrieved the blender from it. She took it over to Joan.

"I remember that Julia Childs is really a man, and that I can make a very interesting dinner by blending a fish in this." She said. Joan took the blender from Vicki, a little panic in her swift action. Vicki looked up at Joan.

"No, Vicki- no more cooking for you until you stop watching that Saturday Night Live show." She said, a little worried. "Come on, let's go see if we can consul your starry eyed brother." She said.

Ted Lawson sat in the United Robotronics building, once again staring out the window. This time however, the sky fit his foreboding mood. The rumbles of thunder seemed to coincide with his every thought, and he knew that the time had come. He simply had to have Herbert Winston free up some SJ32'S or else the hydraulics expo would end in failure.

Ted took one more sip from his Styrofoam cup of coffee. The coffee wasn't helping his slightly upset stomach, and Ted guessed that it all stemmed from the stress of the situation now laid out before him. No one else on his expo team was going to do anything about it, so now the ball was in his court. He got up from his desk and left his smallish office, beginning his trek through the behemoth that was the United Robotronics building. It being a Saturday, very few people inhabited the workspace. Only the very dedicated- or the very behind schedule- made it a point to be there. Herbert Winston would be one of those few every Saturday.

Ted rounded the long staircase at one of the ends of the building and started making his way down into the sub-basement. There was almost no noise at all from the lower floor, and Ted began to doubt whether or not Winston might be down there working. He reached the bottom of the stairs and opened up the loud heavy door into the spooky dimly lit hallway. Ted frowned. He wondered why such a company so focused on electronics would let their own building have flickering lights, and then stepped into the long echoing hallway.

His footsteps seemed louder and louder as he went, passing by the various labs and special work areas. Many of them were off limit even to Ted, who had been to just about every department in the entire company. It was no secret to everyone else in the building that Ted Lawson was smarter than he looked, and they used his skill and brainpower when a situation really called for it. Ted liked to think that he was well respected by all his peers, and one day his pretty little invention back home would really put him on the map… even at the head of the company itself. He had walked down the hall and found his destination- there in front of him was a large sealed door that read in big important looking letters, 'GAMES AND MAGIC.' Scrawled below that in what looked like a sharpie marker were also the words, 'No entry to anyone with an IQ of 180 or less.'

The door opened up suddenly, catching Ted completely off guard, and both men on either side of the door jumped a little bit at the unexpected sight of each other. Ted almost gave out a yelp, the man on the other side nearly dropped his manila folder full of papers. Ted looked him up and down, the smallish man couldn't have been more than 25 at the latest. In fact he looked fresh out of college- or even still attending. He was the classical egghead nerd too, complete with lab coat and thick round glasses.

"Is there something I can do for you? Mr.?…" started the nerd, sounding very annoyed. Ted collected himself and stood up straight.

"Yes! Sorry, I'm looking for Herbert Winston?" He said. The nerdy little fellow looked even more annoyed, and pushed his way past Ted toward the staircase.

"I'm Doctor Herbert Winston, and I'm very busy. What do you need?" Said Winston, adjusting his glasses. Ted began following him, a little flustered.

"Oh uh, I'm Ted. Ted Lawson!" He began, holding out his hand for the handshake. It never came, and Winston didn't break his stride. Ted continued, putting his hands in his pockets. "I'm from the robotics and hydraulics department upstairs, and boy could we use your help with something! I mean we're in a real tight bind." He said, tripping up the staircase behind Winston. Winston scoffed, and made a strange little laugh.

"I think you people are far beyond my help." He said. "Robotics, you must work with that buffoon, Brandon Brindle?" Asked Winston. Ted gave a nervous chuckle.

"Well sort of… he's actually my boss." He replied. Winston kept his pace out of the stairwell and back onto the factory portion of the United Robotronics building. He started making his way towards the cafeteria. "He's also my next door neighbor. I've got it pretty bad." Said Ted, hoping to work some humor into the conversation.

"Mr. Lawson, there's nothing that can save any of that man's ideas-" Started Winston. Then he stopped, a bell seemingly going off in his head. Ted took the opportunity and made his case.

"I agree with you there, but actually this has to do with the Hydraulics expo coming up. See, it would make our jobs so much more doable if we could have access to just a few of the SJ32 data stacks, the SJ28s keep shorting out and losing our data for the hydraulic press, our poor CAD tech had to write a whole list of logarithms…" Ted said. He stopped, realizing that Winston didn't seem to be listening at all. The pale little man in the lab coat was jotting something down on his file cover.

"And you'd like me to just give you some the SJ32s to your team for free? Leaving my own team of incompetents to suffer through slow processing times? I could care less about who has access to what data stacks or towers around here. The question is, is there anything you're going to offer in fair trade?" Asked Winston. Ted nodded and shrugged.

"I'm sure there's some kind of deal we could work out…" Ted began. He started thinking that maybe using his knowledge of robotics and programming might be something that Games and Magic could need someday, but before he could say it, Winston interrupted him.

"Oh but there is, Mr. Lawson." Said Winston, now staring intently at Ted. Ted was taken aback by the egghead's sudden shift in focus.

"Oh? What's that?" He asked a little nervously.

"Well, you must be Jamie and Vicki's father. Correct?" Said Winston. Ted's mouth opened in shock. Winston continued walking down the factory floor to the cafeteria, and Ted followed behind him, a little angrily.

"Now just a minute!" Said Ted. "How exactly do you know my son and daughter?!" Winston turned briefly as he answered.

"I'm surprised your son wouldn't have told you. We met at the Rockin' Bach's yesterday night." Said Winston. "It was him and your daughter that broke one of my records at the Tilt Arcade." He said. Ted stopped following Winston.

"You're kidding." Said Ted, in genuine amazement.

"Oh I'm not in a kidding mood, Mr. Lawson." Said Herbert Winston. "I mean to win that state championship, and with your little girl's score- I can do just that. You want to make me a deal?" Asked Winston. Ted folded his arms and followed behind Winston once more.

"Uh… Dr. Winston, you've got to understand it just wouldn't be fair putting my daughter up against anyone at that championship… well I mean that she's only twelve years old! I'm not sure that my wife and I would be comfortable putting her in the competition." Said Ted. Winston chuckled.

"No I doubt that she would make it through to the championships, but she can definitely upset the score during the elimination rounds tomorrow. My idiot rival will be there, and if your daughter can bring the same game that she did yesterday to the arcade… well, it wouldn't do him any favors to be beaten by some little girl standing on a step stool." Said Winston, a smile creeping across his face. "I've heard she was quite a pro player, standing on her toes." Ted put his hands in his pockets.

"You want me to put Vicki in the qualifying score competition." Said Ted, considering just how bad of a lesson this would be teaching his son.

"In return for which I'll free up 5 of the SJ32s for your work." Said Winston. Ted groaned out.

"That would be more than enough to help us out." He said, dropping his head down.

"Then I would suggest heavily considering my offer, especially with your expo looming ever closer." They had reached the cafeteria doors, and Winston pulled from his lab coat pocket a saran wrapped tuna sandwich. "Consider it, Mr. Lawson… success favors the man who acts." He said, entering the doors and disappearing into a small group of lunch goers.

Ted sighed out. This was not at all what he had imagined his first meeting with Herbert Winston would be like. This was actually much worse. How was this even possible? It seemed like the worst case scenario was the only scenario in which Ted could come out ahead. He shook his head, resolved that he would lose this battle and his much needed bonus check.

He climbed the stairs back up towards his office to collect his own lunch. Thoughts raced through his head. Mostly Ted considered the fact that Jamie had withheld the information of his meeting Dr. Winston, at first he was naturally angry about it. He wondered though if Winston had the same effect on Jamie as he did on himself, making him feel small and hopeless. Ted sighed out again. He had reached his office and went inside.

He sat down at his little desk in his little office and grabbed his little bagged lunch. Looking out the office window once more, he was able to spy outside three United employees in the parking lot playing with a radio controlled tank of sorts. They proudly jumped up and down as it rolled over a series of obstacles they had set up, giving each other high fives for their great work. Ted looked back at his lunch bag. He wanted a high five too. All of his greatest inventions were either at home in secret, or stolen by Brandon Brindle.

Ted grabbed from his desk a nice family photo in a well polished oak frame. In the photo sat Joan, with Ted behind her, and Jamie and Vicki to either side. He smiled and put the frame back down. Sure the young kids in the parking lot got high fives for their invention with it's ability to roll over a rock or two, but his invention had packed his lunch for him, did his laundry, and even took out the garbage on occasion.

He opened up the bag lunch that Vicki had made for him earlier in the morning. He pulled out a bizarre entrée, a cucumber, onion, cheese, and what he thoroughly hoped wasn't peanut butter sandwich. He shook his head and pulled out an apple, relieved at it's normalcy. He also took out a juice box, one of those futuristic space age orange drinks.

"Our favorite robot." Said Ted to himself. He went to crumple the bag but noticed that Vicki had squirreled away one more lunch item for him. He dumped the contents of the bag onto the desk and sat in silent contemplation at what he saw. For all of his scientific knowledge concerning robots and computer intelligence, Ted Lawson, the man who had invented perhaps the most advanced android in the world, had failed to grasp the full abilities of his own invention.

A strange blinding emotion welled up within Ted, and he gripped the tiny bag close to his chest. He smiled wide and read the bag again, almost laughing as his eyes followed the words. It was just a plain old bag of potato chips, travel sized, but Vicki had taken a black permanent marker and crossed out the word 'Potato', and written above it in her best penmanship the word 'Bargaining'.

Jamie sat on his bed reading up on his favorite book, How to win at Pac-Man. Still trying to recover from his early morning deflating. He absently turned the pages, looking mostly at the pictures. It was still raining outside, even thundering slightly. He looked up from his reading and walked over to the window. The rain against the glass revealed many strange markings. Jamie inspected them closely. Ear prints.

"Harriet." He said, shaking his head in disgust. He closed the window blind and turned back to his bed. He plopped back down just as Vicki appeared in the doorway of his bedroom.

"Mom said for you to come to get some lunch." Said Vicki. Jamie nodded silently, sitting up.

"Vicki…" He began. "I wish you could've beaten all those high scores, honest. You really are good enough, you know." Said Jamie. Vicki tilted her head to the side.

"I'm also good at folding your laundry and watering the plants." She said. Jamie got up from his bed to go stand closer to her.

"Yeah, but those aren't as fun. Well not to me at least." He said. "I'll tell ya, Dad's right about you! You're probably so smart that you could work for NASA when you grow up, but all work and no play would drive me crazy!" Vicki nodded.

"When I grow up." She stated. Jamie frowned a little.

"Sure Vicki, We can just tell everyone that you're a very short adult." He took Vicki by the shoulder and led her out of the room and down the hallway. "You don't need any high score to impress me, I already know you're the best Pac-Man player in the whole world! I'm happy enough that you ruffled that Vector guy's feathers."

"I made you happy enough." Said Vicki. Jamie nodded big.

"You bet! You don't need some crummy title to be the best, and you're the best Vicki." He said, matter-of-factly. Vicki nodded big in agreement.

"I'm the best." She said, giving the thumbs up. Jamie laughed and entered the kitchen with her. They were greeted by Joan. She had laid out upon the table a tray full of meats and various cheeses with tiny pieces of bread.

"Lunch is served." She said in a mock Julia Childs accent. "Are you still in a sour mood, Jamie?" Asked Joan, putting some bread on a plate for him. Jamie shook his head and sat at the table.

"No mom." He said. "I was just telling Vicki that she didn't need to beat the championship to be a real champion." Joan finished putting together his plate.

"Oh that's nice." She said. "Kind of sounds like something Mr. Miyagi would say to Daniel-San in that movie last week." She said, giving Jamie a knowing smile. Vicki turned to Joan.

"No Mercy." She said Then she gave a thumbs up to her. "I'm the best around." Joan laughed out.

"That's cute, I think we'll keep you away from that movie from now on." She said. Jamie put a sandwich up to his mouth just as he was about to speak.

"Hey! Maybe we can enroll her into a karate class! She'd really clean house then!" He said. Joan put together her own sandwich as she spoke.

"I think she'd clean too many clocks too." She said. Jamie nodded and smiled. He bit into his little sandwich. The backdoor swung open with a sudden gust of air and mist. A frantic and nearly breathless Ted entered the kitchen, smiling like a mad clown.

"Joanie!" He exclaimed. "I am so stupid!" He shouted happily, running over to the table and giving her a huge damp hug. Joan dropped the sandwich to her plate, shaken by his exuberant affections.

"What?! What are you talking about?" She asked, still in the grips of his bear hug. Ted released his hold of her and instead went over to Vicki, standing behind her, he placed his hands upon her shoulders. Vicki looked up at him.

"Joan. You were right. You had it absolutely right the first time! Vicki isn't running any normal subroutine for you, or me, or even Jamie! I think she's independently developed a parallel set of prime directives that take precedence over any of her voice commands! Or even her collected task data!" His excited computer jargon was met with confused looks from his wife and son. He patted Vicki's shoulders and moved over to Jamie instead.

"Dad, I'm not sure even Vicki understood any of that." Said Jamie. Ted smiled and crossed his arms.

"Vicki not understanding it is pretty apt, actually Jamie. Without knowing it, Vicki has- on her own mind you- permanently programmed herself to try to make us all happy." He said proudly. "You see every time she's completed a task for us, or finished a routine that made us happier, Vicki collected the results and stored them in her various processing units, and over time as a way to free up space and become more efficient at task completion, she's made a whole new kind of top layer program that trumps anything else that's programmed into her." Jamie dropped his sandwich too.

"You mean she's been faking this entire time? She doesn't have to do what we tell her?!" He asked, feeling almost betrayed.

"Oh honey…" Said Joan, getting up from the table. "Is that okay for her to be able to do?" Asked Joan a little concerned. Ted put his hands in his pockets.

"Well… no, she's still hardwired to respond and to react to our voice commands, but she's constantly trying to make us all individually happy when we do ask her to do something. It's also a pretty good indication that she does have wants now… she just can't actualize them yet." He said. Joan smiled and went over to Vicki, kneeling down and giving her a slight hug.

"Oh Vicki." She said. "You'll always make me happy- no matter what." Jamie picked his sandwich up again and spoke.

"Okay, so what gave this all away to you?" He asked, stuffing his face full of sandwich.

"Chips!" Answered Ted, producing the empty bag from his rear pocket. "Bargaining chips. Do you remember Joan, earlier this morning? We were talking about my job, how I had nothing to offer this guy Winston? She stuffed these into my lunch when she overheard us talking about it! She wanted me to succeed at work today!" He said. Joan's eye's lit up.

"Oh I get it! She wanted you to succeed so that you'd be happy! That's so sweet!" She said. Jamie finished his sandwich and looked at them all.

"Did the chips actually help?" He asked, curious as to what the purpose might have been.

"In a way." Said Ted, then he looked sternly at Jamie. "Now Jamie, when this is all over, we're going to have a talk about just how this Vector talked to you- and how he wormed yours and Vicki's name out of you! That was extremely dangerous, I can't believe you'd give out information like that to a stranger!" Jamie's eye's widened.

"How'd you know Vector talked to me?!" He asked in shock.

"Because Dr. Herbert Winston just so happens to be Vector." Said Ted with a bit of disgust. Joan gasped.

"A grown man?" She asked in disbelief.

"Oh, he's pretty young." Said Ted. "Probably just out of school. He's rude, overly proud, and treated me like I was a common beggar. Do you know, he actually wants Vicki to go to the qualifying contest tomorrow to beat his rival? He said he'd free up some SJ32s for me in return." Joan grabbed Vicki close to herself.

"Oh Ted! That's horrible!" She said.

"I'm the only bargaining chip on the table." Stated Vicki.

"I'm sorry everyone." Said Jamie. "This is all my fault. If I hadn't wanted Vicki to play Pac-Man in the first place, none of this would have happened, huh?" He asked, in genuine guilt.

"Jamie, you couldn't have known." Said Joan. Jamie looked at Ted.

"Honest Dad, I don't even want Vicki to enter that championship anymore, you were right- it wouldn't be fair." He said. Ted folded his arms and looked approvingly at his son.

"Good Jamie. I'm proud of you for making the right decision." He said. Then he turned on his heels to Vicki. "Vicki, I want you to enter into the qualifying rounds tomorrow." Jamie's mouth dropped agape at his father's words. Joan shook her finger at Ted.

"Oh Ted! After all that, you're going to give him Vicki!?" She said shocked. Ted smiled and took Joan into his arms (with a bit of a struggle.)

"Oh I'll give him Vicki, alright. So much Vicki that he's gonna' have to give everything he's got to even keep up with her!" He exclaimed. Jamie shot out of his chair excitedly.

"Yeah! Teach that egghead a lesson!" He shouted.

"That's right! You show him Ted!" Exclaimed Joan, getting caught up in the moment.

"That little weasel won't even know what hit him!" Said Ted, then he bent down to Vicki. "Vicki, what do you say to beating Vector in that tournament tomorrow?" He asked her. Vicki turned and looked up at him.

"I say…" She began, hitting her fist into her palm just like a tough guy. "Get him a body bag, Johnny." Ted, Joan and Jamie all cheered.

"Great! Now let's head out to the market!" Said Ted.

"The Market? What for?" Asked Joan.

"They've got a Pac-Man machine there right? We're gonna' brush up on Vicki's Pac-Man skills all day!" Said Ted. Joan nodded.

"Oh good, I can get some groceries there too. Someone drank all the O.J." She said. They all headed towards the door, umbrellas and quarters in their hands, but before they could leave, a familiar freckled face greeted them at the door. Harriet smiled as the Lawsons opened the back door, she stared up at them with a very odd raincoat, shaped like a frog's head.

"Hi Harriet." Said Ted, looking down at her.

"Hiyee!" Said Harriet, looking at everyone. "What was all the cheering about? I could hear it all the way in my back yard!" She said. Jamie put a hand on his hip.

"You mean you heard it with your greasy ear right up against our window." He corrected her. "Dad's letting Vicki enter that Pac-Man contest tomorrow after all, and she's gonna cream that egghead from the record store!" Harriet's already big eyes got even bigger.

"What? But my daddy works with that egghead!… I'll bet he'd love to watch him lose. What time is the big game?!" She asked.

"It starts at ten, Harriet, and you're welcome to come watch tomorrow." Said Ted, breaking up the conversation. "We're just about to leave though, important family business to attend to." He said, moving to scoot her out of the door.

"Oh okay!" Said Harriet. "I'll tell my folks all about it!" She said on her way out the door.

"Geez, Dad." Said Jamie. "With Harriet's mouth, the whole town's gonna be there!"

"The more the merrier!" Said Ted, as the four of them left for the outside. "We'll show them all what a true champion looks like!"

On that particular Sunday, the mall was uncharacteristically busy. Word had spread far and wide of the contest opener, and all the Arcade nerds were afoot- either to toss their own quarters into the now fully Pac-Man oriented arcade, or as a spectator to the championship hopefuls. The Pac-Man arcade cabinets were set in a square, so that everyone could see the action.

Jamie stood in awe of the spectacle. 24 Pac-Man arcade cabinets, he had never seen so many in his life. To him, it was as marvelous a sight as the Grand Canyon. Ted peeked his head into the arcade door.

"Well! That's a lot of machines!" Noticed Ted. "Vicki's all signed in and setup, waiting with your Mother and Reggie- now we've just got to wait for them to announce her on the loud speaker!" He said. Ted scanned the full arcade until he found the egghead he was looking for. "There he is Jamie! Let's go say hi!"

The two of them walked casually into the mob of people, and into the competitor's square. Herbert Winston turned sharply to Ted from his chosen all time favorite cabinet.

"Mr. Lawson!" Said Winston, shaking Ted's hand at last. "I see you're a man of true wit after all!" He said.

"Oh, well I hope so!" Said Ted, quite fake. He patted Jamie's shoulder. "You already met my son, Jamie."

"Of course." Replied Winston plainly, not even acknowledging Jamie with so much as a glance. "I hope your daughter is as good as her score would have me believe, there are a few heavy contenders here." He said, shifting his weight to his other foot. He motioned for Ted to look behind where they were standing. Several very unusual looking people were gathered at the tournament sign up table, one of which Jamie recognized.

"Holy smokes! Dad, look! That's the guy from the book I read! How to win at Pac-Man!" Said Jamie excitedly.

"He's a showoff and a braggart." Said Winston. "Unfortunately he's leagues ahead of everyone else who's here… your daughter being able to offset the scores in the higher tables today might be the only way to bring him down a few notches- it's going to be hard enough to even qualify for the second round with him in it!" He said, sounding quite distressed.

"Oh she'll offset the scores alright." Said Ted with a knowing smile.

"Of course- it'll mean the only way for you to get those SJ32s as well." Winston reminded Ted. Ted nodded, trying not to show his delight with what was about to hit the room full of cocky pros. The loud speaker came to life and started the announcements.

"Okay! Welcome everyone, contenders and visitors, to the first round of qualifiers for the California State Pac-Man championship! When I call your name, please proceed to your chosen machine and standby until all the contestants are ready to play!" Said the man in control of the loud speaker. The first name was read out, Herbert Winston, of course. He was met with applause and whistles from the tilt arcade staff and regulars.

Ted and Jamie left outside of the square of the arcade set up, waiting by the doors for Vicki's grandiose entrance. Ted had strategically worked out with the tournament sponsors to call her last, and they obliged, excited to leave the youngest contender for a more fluffed entrance. The names continued, people had come from all over the west coast, not just California, but Nevada, Washington, even a few from Arizona. Winston's rival, the writer of Jamie's favorite book, Chip Roving, was finally called, and took the second to last cabinet, one space away from Winston, leaving the only space left for Vicki to be in between the two of them.

"Okay Jamie, get the step stool!" Said Ted. Jamie nodded, grabbing a step stool from beside the arcade entrance. Jamie hopped up and down excitedly.

"This is going to be great!" He said happily.

"Our final contestant today, also our youngest! Please give a warm welcome for Vicki Lawson~!" Said the man over the loud speaker.

"Now Joan!" Ted whispered loudly through the doors.

"…Vicki?" Asked the loud speaker man. His reply was met with music from a boom box, carried through the arcade doors by Reggie. His stereo blasted out the beginning notes of 'Eye of the Tiger' by survivor, and it drowned out the murmur of the crowd. Reggie cool walked his way down the square of cabinets, clearing a path as he went. He stopped and turned his head towards the doors, just in time for them to open.

Vicki hopped in through the doors of the arcade, followed by Joan. Her usual pinafore gone, Vicki instead wore a nicely fitted pair of red and white striped boxer's shorts, a matching tank top, and a shiny red boxing robe. The hood covered her face as she hopped along the cleared path, throwing jabs and quick uppercuts with her pretty pink boxing gloves. The crowd loved it.

Joan walked along behind Vicki, wearing dark sunglasses and a stoic face. She shooed people along that were too close, and carried with her a ring box. They reached Vicki's cabinet, joined by Ted and Jamie, who removed Vicki's robe in ceremonial fashion.

Vicki raised her gloved hands into the air and bounced around in a circle just like a champion lightweight in the ring, for which the growing audience cheered. Jamie placed the step stool in front of the Pac-Man cabinet, and Vicki stepped onto it. She turned to face Winston directly, who looked back in shock at the young twelve year old hooligan in front of him.

Vicki brought her gloves together in a punching motion a few times, a stoic determined look on her face. She rolled her neck and then faced back to Jamie and Ted, who then took off her gloves to reveal one final touch on Vicki's bare hands. On the back of her left hand, spelled out in a glittery polish was the word 'Game', on her right hand was another glittering polish that spelled out 'Over'. She held her hands up again, crossing her hands in front of her, still hopping around on the stool for the crowd and other contenders to see.

"Okay!" Said the man over the loud speaker, having far too much fun with the situation. "All the contestants are ready, the rules are as follows- All contestants get one play on the quarter provided by the Tilt arcade- There are no continues if you run out of lives! We'll be watching closely, any other quarters and you're disqualified. Get the highest score you can in 3 hours, the top 10 scores will go on to the second round next week with the eliminations! When I say go, all contestants hit start and begin your game!…"

All the contestants turned quickly to face their machines, all except for Vicki. Some of the contenders noticed, and turned to see why. The audience also murmured, some laughing. Vicki opened her mouth wide, and Joan opened the little ring box she had been carrying. Joan produced from it a cube of unmistakable pink bubble gum, which she put into Vicki's mouth as if it were a mouth piece. (This got many laughs, not just from the spectators but from the other contestants too.) She turned to face the machine, and gave a little cutesy smile to Winston- who had a look of total determination on his face.

"Gooooo!" Came the command over the loud speaker. The arcade came alive with the sound of 24 machines churning out one unanimous tune, the game start music. All the contestants started their games, and the Lawsons watched as Vicki waited for the ghosts to close in on her, moving with very slight movements to place the yellow sprite where she needed it. Her 6 hours of practice at the Pac-Man cabinet in the local market had vastly improved Vicki's overall ability and command of the game, and the market's new high score had been seen and witnessed by many who were in the crowd today- most of whom came to witness the twelve year old prodigy play again. Winston had not witnessed any of it, neither had his rival next to Vicki, and the two men couldn't help but see out of the corners of their eyes what was happening on her screen. Their mouths both dropped open in awe over what they saw happen next.

With centimeters between the red and green ghosts, Vicki once again dipped her yellow sprite in between the two of them and immediately back out again, this time however, she also ran the sprite towards the flanking ghosts closing in on her from the opposite direction. She situated her movements so that she went between the two of them as well, pulling back out towards the other ghosts again and repeating the process. All the ghosts moved in an erratic circle, more so than with her first game, and the pink ghost broke from it's usual pattern- heading straight left away from Vicki's sprite, The rest of the ghosts followed. The other ghosts were now chasing the pink ghost, and Vicki was free to run the board as she felt fit.

Winston's eyes nearly popped out of his head as he watched Vicki begin to seemingly chase the ghosts down the maze. He snapped his attention back to his own game, just in time to save himself from his own pink ghost. He was visibly shaken. Winston's rival, however, could not take his eyes off of Vicki's screen in time, and lost one life. Panic set into Winston's face, as he realized that his plan may have had a flaw.

The crowd of onlookers cheered as Vicki cleared the first stage with unbelievable ease, going into the second as if she were invincible, dodging ghosts at last seconds, collecting every dot in sequence, placing the yellow sprite so perfectly at the maze entrances that incoming fruit bonuses flashed on the screen so briefly that most people missed them completely. Ted clapped his hands laughing, watching Winston begin to perspire. Jamie cheered on Vicki.

Chip, Winston's published rival, glanced over at Vicki- she immediately caught his gaze and returned it, never taking her hand away from the joystick. She stopped watching her screen to look at him, still dodging the ghosts with precise control, and maintaining full awareness of the game. Chip tried to shake his unnerved feeling, returning to his own game. Vicki watched his screen as she played her own game, clearing the second stage with a perfect run.

"I read your book." Said Vicki, as she started the third stage, still looking at his game. Her game went on flawlessly, ghosts dodged perfectly, dots collected impeccably. Chip began sweating noticeably. Vicki blew a bubble from her chewing gum and popped it. She turned her attention back to her own game. "It's been very helpful." She added.

Other contestants had noticed Vicki's tactics, and a few of them had dropped out of their games to go and watch hers instead. Joan nudged Ted.

"This is going to go on for 3 whole hours?" She asked him.

"Not at the rate Vicki's making others drop out!" Said Ted, a little surprised at how quickly the pros had given up.

"No doubt!" Said Jamie, his arms crossed, a big smile on his face. His smile dropped as a familiar freckled arm wrapped around his own.

"Jamie!" Sang Harriet. "Am I crazy, or is that a ring box in your hand?!" Jamie looked down at his hand, having forgotten that he had taken it from his mother during Vicki's second stage run.

"You're crazy." He replied, putting the box in his pants pocket. Harriet looked over to at Vicki, playing her game. Jamie wrestled his arm away from hers.

"Wow! She is good, Jamie, you were right!" She said, she swung her head around, searching for her own father. "My daddy should see this- Vicki's got that mean man from his work sweating like a pig!" Jamie smiled and nodded.

"Yeah!… It's great huh?" He said. "Watch this!" He began dipping into Vicki's robes, and pulled out a Rubik's cube. Ted and Joan both raised an eyebrow, watching as Jamie mixed up the colors on it, scrambling it several times. Then he took it over to Vicki. She took it, eyeing the puzzle and turning it over in her right hand.

"Holy-moly!" Shrieked Harriet as she watched Vicki focus on the solving of the cube with one hand, while absently playing a perfect run of the fourth stage.

"Inconceivable!" Hissed Winston, watching the spectacle during his fourth stage loading screen. Vicki tossed the cube up in the air rotating it as she did. The crowd of onlookers gawked at the incredible feat before them. Vicki finished the cube and handed it back to Jamie. Several contestants put their hands up and walked away from their machines- perhaps because they had been careless in watching her, or maybe because they simply saw no chance against the baby Einstein in their midst. Reggie also stood in utter disbelief at what he saw. He turned to Jamie.

"Man, Jamie! You said she was good, not a Pac-Man wizard!" He said. "She's like Einstein in a dress!" Jamie nodded.

"Well, practice makes perfect." He said. "After all, she learned from the best~." Said Jamie, tugging on his shirt collar proudly. Reggie shook his head.

"No way. The way she plays, it's like she's a Pac-Man Terminator or something!" He said. Ted coughed, hearing the conversation.

"Guys, who's up for some Pizza, huh?" He said. "We can go grab a few slices and come right back. Joan, do you want one?" Joan shook her head.

"On no, I'm not eating anything from that Pizza place, the kids running it look like heavy metal fans!" She said. "I'll stay with Vicki, you go ahead." Harriet hopped up and down, still trying to find her father.

"I know he's here somewhere! I just can't find my Dad anywhere!" She said.

"We'll bring you back a slice, Harriet." Said Ted, wrangling Jamie and Reggie towards the door. On the way out, Ted spotted the elusive Mr. Brindle, skulking around the kid's mini golf game set up. He sighed out and rolled his eyes as he watched Brandon try to line up a putt through a tiny windmill.

"She sure is cleaning house!" Said Harriet to Joan. Joan nodded in agreement. "I almost feel bad for everyone else!"

"Me too…" Said Joan. "I guess that poor Dr. Winston bit off more than anyone could ever chew…" She said to herself.

Herbert Winston cleared his fourth stage, and glanced around, noting that more and more people were crowding the Lawson kids' machine. He quickly peeked at her screen just in time to see her finish her fifth board. She glanced back at him, popping her bubble gum as she did so. He involuntarily gulped hard, summarily intimidated at last by the wunderkind.

Vicki looked back at her screen, just as a familiar sound of a ghost pummeling came from Winston's cabinet. He quickly looked back in horror to his own screen, watching his little yellow sprite fold in on itself. He took his glasses off and wiped them quickly on his lab coat, putting them back on upside down at first. He turned them right side up quickly, hoping no one had seen him, and restarted his run.

More and more players also dropped from their games, now only 15 remained, and only 1 hour had passed. Ted, Jamie, and Reggie returned from the pizza kiosk with multiple slices for Harriet and themselves. They held the pieces up above their heads as they negotiated through Vicki's new audience.

"Lawson!" Whispered Winston to Ted, as they passed by him. Ted stopped to turn to Winston, pizza still in hand. "Lawson! That's enough! Call your daughter off- or you can kiss those data stacks good-bye!" He said angrily. Ted handed his slice of pizza to Jamie, who shuffled onward.

"Gee, Dr. Winston, it almost sounds like you can't handle a little girl on her tip toes." Said Ted, with a little relish.

"I've taken your point- I'm sorry- Now for goodness sakes! You never told me she was some kind of a savant!" Said Winston. Ted crossed his arms, watching Winston play his game, quite shaken by Vicki's performance.

"Well, you'll have to take that up with the savant herself, it's her choice after all." Said Ted. He smiled and walked over to Vicki, putting his hand on her shoulder. "Vicki, what do you think?" He asked her. Vicki looked up at him.

"I'm the best." She said, giving a thumbs up. Then she turned to him and crossed her arms in front of him so that the glittering words spelled out her message, Game Over. Then she turned back to her game, and continued playing. Ted shrugged and went to join his family.

"Lawson wait! Wait!" Began Winston. "I get it! I-I insulted your intelligence and dignity both… you deserve your anger…"

"Go on…" Said Ted, stopping to listen.

"I'm sorry." Said Winston, with perhaps the only genuine apology he had ever given to anyone. "I'm sorry- but you have no idea how much this means to me! It's not about the money prize, no, it's about the recognition! That blowhard, Chip, he's always been the victor in everything he's done!"

"All this over wanting to be better than one person." Said Ted. "That's really sad, Herbert, a man as smart as yourself brought to such a petty level. I may not have all the respect you have in your field of work and at the company we work at, but at least I have a grip on what matters in life." He said, rubbing Vicki's shoulder.

"Well this matters to me!… and I don't stand a chance with your daughter's scores at the championship… she's better than me- there's no way around it." Said Winston, nearly breaking down. "She was right, she is the best, she'll take the title for sure…" He said, miserable with every word.

"The title." Stated Vicki. "I don't need some crummy title to tell me I'm the best." She said. "I'm happy enough to have ruffled your feathers." Winston couldn't peel his eyes from his screen, but he listened intently.

"What?" He demanded. Ted crossed his arms.

"Well, Vicki's only twelve, Dr. Winston, we're not going to let her enter the full championship… this year." Said Ted. "She just entered the qualifiers to see what her competition would be like, sometime down the road."

"Her score still counts toward the elimination round though…" began Winston.

"Oh? What's your score Vicki? Quietly." Said Ted. Vicki leaned over to Winston.

"Seven hundred twenty three thousand and two hundred points." She said. Winston shook his head vehemently.

"No- that's impossible! I've seen her, her game is perfect!" Said Winston, confused.

"I haven't used any yellow pellets to eat ghosts in this game." Said Vicki. "My current score is twenty thousand points behind yours."

"How could you possibly know my score?! They have all the scores blackened out on all the cabinets!" Demanded Winston.

"I've been keeping score." Replied Vicki. "You are the current score leader by ten thousand points."

"You've been holding back your score? But why?" Asked Winston. Ted shrugged.

"She's already got the highest score she could get on another machine- trust me Winston, you don't want to know." He said. Winston put a hand up to his aching head. "You can keep the SJ32s, Winston, I just wanted to let Vicki have the chance to see that she didn't need anyone to tell her that she's a winner to be one." With that Ted left to enjoy his slice of pizza.

"I'm so proud of you, Ted!" Said Joan, hugging his shoulder as he returned to her. "Standing up for yourself and Vicki, instead of taking his offer!" Ted took a bite of his pizza slice.

"It was awfully tempting Joan… I have to admit. I can kiss that big bonus check goodbye, though." He said. Reggie shook his head still watching the games.

"Mr. Lawson, you don't need a bonus check, just rent Vicki out to the video game companies as a game tester." He said. Jamie's eyes lit up.

"Don't even think about it Jamie." Said Ted. Harriet let out a shriek, dropping her pizza slice to the ground.

"Oh Jamie! I knew it was a ring! How romantic, you sly dog you!" She said, wrapping herself around Jamie. He wrestled out her grip.

"Harriet! Let me go! What are you talking about!?" Demanded Jamie. Harriet showed him the ring in question, a little dirty with pizza sauce. It was a gold ring with a screaming cyborg-harpy looking thing on it's front. There was something written in stylistic Dutch on it as well, probably some foreign rock band.

"You snuck it in the pizza when no one was looking, huh? I accept!" She exclaimed with open arms. Reggie laughed out, looking up at Ted and Joan's horrified faces.

"Hey Mr. and Mrs. Lawson! Think I can be the best man? I look great in a tux." He said jokingly.

Back at Vicki's game, the crowd looked on as she finished her twentieth stage. She turned so that Chip could see her, he was on his last life. He quickly glanced at her and back at his own screen. He heard her Pac-Man sprite get pummeled from her cabinet. She watched his screen, no longer playing apparently, and she gave a big tired full body stretch.

"Looks like Vicki is done playing." Said Joan, watching her at the machine. She watched as Vicki reached into her baggy boxer's shorts, producing from the inside of a pocket a smallish book. Chip looked down at her.

"That's my book!" Said Jamie. "Er… his book." Vicki ripped a page from the middle of the book, very loudly, and folded it up to her mouth. She spat her bubblegum into the wad of paper and unceremoniously stuck it underneath her cabinet's control deck.

"Very helpful." Said Vicki, giving a quick smile to him. Chip angrily jammed his joystick as he lost his last Pac-Man play to the pink ghost. He turned, hands on his hips and nostrils flared, looking at Vicki as she trotted carefree over to her waiting family. His expression twisted from one of anger to one of fright as a shattering sound filled the air behind him. The arcade went silent. He turned to see his cabinet's screen cracked and in pieces, a tiny colorful golf ball wedged neatly in it's center. Herbert Winston shook his head in sympathy, not for Chip, but for the machine.

"I'm sorry! Oh boy! I hope no one got hurt!" Came Brandon Brindle's voice, as he made his way through the crowd. A tiny putter in his hand, he looked at his handy work and cringed.

"Terminal!" Hissed Winston angrily, as the pink ghost relieved him of his last play.

The End

The Lawson Family will return in:

 **Time and time again and time and again.**


End file.
